Pakistan's SC grants bail to Nawaz Sharif for treatment

In a relief to Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan's Supreme Court Tuesday granted bail to the jailed former prime minister for six weeks on medical grounds.

A three-judge bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa reserved the decision after Sharif's lawyer and NAB prosecutors completed their arguments.

Sharif, 69, is lodged in the Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore since December last year, serving 7-year imprisonment in the Al Azizia Steel Mills graft case.

He filed appeal earlier this month against a judgment by the Islamabad High Court which on February 25 rejected his bail on medical grounds in the same case.

But the court ruled he cannot go out of the country during this period.

The court ordered him to submit Rs5 million surety bonds. Nawaz Sharif will have to surrender before law after the expiry of his bail period.

The orders said he would be arrested if he failed to surrender before the law.

If his health does not improve, Nawaz Sharif can file a new application for extension in his bail period.

Three corruption cases - Avenfield properties, Flagship investment, and Al-Azizia steel mills - were registered against the Sharif family by the anti-graft body in 2017 following a judgment by the Supreme Court that disqualified Sharif in the Panama Papers case in 2017.

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in the Avenfiled corruption case in July 2018 which was related to his properties in London. Later he was given bail in September.

In December, the accountability court convicted him in the Al-Azizia graft case but acquitted him in the Flagship corruption case.

The Al-Azizia Steel Mill case is related to setting up steel mills in Saudi Arabia allegedly with corruption.